EGO-FOR-Web

Ego Lemos – PermaYouth

Change the World is supporting Ego Lemos with his endeavour to take young Timorese and instil in them a passion for the land and a drive to make Timor-Leste a better place fore themselves and their children. The project is known as PermaYouth.

A musician, singer songwriter and environmental troubadour Ego Lemos is a remarkable man, with a remarkable voice in more ways than one.

Ego set up PERMATIL in 2000 as a local NGO concentrating on sustainable development, working with farmers, community leaders, community groups, Government staff, NGO / INGO staff, and university and school students. Providing training, information and education, the focus is on how to protect the land and environment, to manage it and use it to improve livelihoods. All training and information provided is compatible with economic, social, cultural, climatic, and environmental conditions in Timor-Leste.

PERMACULTURE = PERMANENT AGRICULTURE + PERMANENT CULTURE
Permanent Agriculture: agriculture and animal management that improves the land, provides income and produce, and is sustainable now and into the future.
Permanent Culture: working with, protecting and encouraging a strong Timorese culture and environment, and moving forward at the same time. Working with nature and people and learning from them, not against or in competition with.

Permaculture connects and integrates different ideas and techniques of living and agriculture together: houses, water supply, health, waste management, agriculture, fruit trees and tree crops, aquaculture, rivers, forests, animals, etc. It builds on traditional knowledge and the new techniques available to augment that knowledge.

With over 250 trained members spread over Timor-Leste’s 13 Districts, it also seeks to build a national movement that facilitates the appreciation and exchange of traditional knowledge from disparate communities within the country, integrating the results into a body of knowledge that will serve all Timorese into the future.

Permatil and now PermaYouth members seek to promote the ten guiding principles of permaculture applicable to all, whether living in an urban or rural environment.
1) Take personal responsibility
2) Seek cooperation, not competition
3) See the solution, not the problem
4) Know that quality makes economic sense
5) Know that energy efficient systems make all sorts of sense
6) Work smart, not hard
7) Minimize waste
8) Work toward integrated systems
9) Seek diversity
10) Enjoy the benefits of beauty and function

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Indigenous Anti Violence Campaign – Grampians Region Victoria

4 Televison Ads designed by Wayne Tindall for Indigenous Communities in the Grampians Region of Victoria.

Recently, Change the World creative director Wayne Tindall spearheaded a campaign in the Grampians region of Victoria working with the Victoria Police Violence Against Women and Children Strategy Group. This is a  public awareness campaign targeting family violence and sexual assault within the Aboriginal community.
TV Ad #1

Grampions TVC 1 – Speak Out Campaign from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

 TV ad #2

Grampions TVC 2 – Speak Out Campaign from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

TV Ad #3

Grampions TVC 3 – Speak Out Campaign from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

TVAd#4

Grampions TVC 4 – Speak Out Campaign from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

 

The objectives of the Indigenous Family Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign are to:
•    improve relationships between the local Indigenous community and Victoria Police;
•    increase community awareness and understanding of the impacts of family violence and sexual assault;
•    identify strategies for victims of family violence and sexual assault;
•    achieve increased reporting of family violence by Aboriginal communities and in the longer term, provide an overall reduction of the incidence of violence ?and sexual assault against women and children in these locations; and
•    engage with the Aboriginal community in order to identify local issues specific ?to family violence and sexual assault.

The campaign was managed by Victoria Police but the four television commercials were developed by Wayne Tindall working with NBS Productions and in partnership with local Aboriginal communities in the Grampians Region to ensure they are responsive to local issues. Once again the results have been outstanding with local people fronting the commercials with astounding frankness and power. The advertisements  are currently airing across this part of Victoria.

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Indigenous Anti Smoking Campaign – Bairnsdale

Change the World is changing the lives of Indigenous communities across Australia!

We recently teamed up with NBS Productions and put our creative hats on to come up with an impressive ‘Anti Smoking Campaign’ for the Indigenous Community in Bairnsdale Victoria.

The desired target audience was broad being:
• Young people that had never smoked
• Young people who smoked
• Mum’s and Dad’s who smoked at hoe and around the kids
• Pregnant mums
• Middle aged parents and singles and
• Elders

We quickly decided to take a holistic approach realising that a campaign of this nature will not be successful with 4 ‘stand alone’ TVC’s without supporting media and the re enforcement of existing social network sites.

Together with the support of the client group, we secured a small group of Indigenous youths who committed to work with us to come up with initial ideas and help with all stages of production in exchange for some formal and professional training in mainstream film and television production.

The idea was that by involving the community at all levels in the actual creative act of this campaign, the key messages would be absorbed by a process of ‘osmosis’, and pride and self esteem would be elevated thus creating a platform from which to build dialogue around an ‘anti smoking’ message.

Four key areas and approaches were identified.
1. A PROUD MOMENT
An advert that targets the financial cost to a family when a parent is smoking.

Indigenous Anti Smoking – No Good Aye “A Proud Moment” from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

2. THE GREATEST GIFT
A hard-hitting ad that targets the family situation when a parent dies through smoking caused
diseases

Indigenous Anti Smoking – No Good Aye “The Greatest Gift” from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

3. IT’S YOUR FUTURE
An ad that targets youths with a clear outline of cause and effect IE: choices today have impact
tomorrow!

Indigenous Anti Smoking – No Good Aye “It’s Your Future” from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

4. NOT FOR ME
A clear message from the community that smoking is “NO GOOD AYE”

Indigenous Anti Smoking – No Good Aye “Not For Me” from wayne tindall on Vimeo.

The initial proposal encompassed the following media:
• Television
• Radio
• Billboards
• Posters
• T Shirts/caps/USB wrist-bands
• On Line/Youtube/Facebook/Twitter
• Mobile Phone

         

We proposed a fairly ‘hard hitting’ approach without ‘preaching directly at existing smokers but rather by using a family/community perspective to get the message across.

We felt that by using a selected group of young people in the production process and by documenting this process and placing ‘behind the scenes’ clips on dedicated facebook/twitter pages, a great deal of local, national and even international interest would be generated.

Anne's-Thoughts

LIFE IN LOS PALOS

It’s hard to believe we have been in Timor Leste for almost 3 weeks.

It has been so challenging and so rewarding.
We arrived in Lospalos to total chaos. Nothing had been organised as promised and the key people were not talking to each other.
After much waiting around things started to shift.
Thankfully our Driver Aalto was a gem. He found us digs, shopped and cooked for us and gave us great cultural advice.
He is now off doing a tour with another group and I miss him terribly.
The young people were super keen to start the Media Training so Wayne, Sarah and Reuben launched into it with great enthusiasm.
They are making a short film which will screen at a major launch here on Saturday the 30th of June.
It has been nothing short of miraculous the way it has all come together. The script has been written by the young people, the Director is West Timorese, sound is being done by a local as well and the star of the show has a Hollywood career coming up without doubt. He is awesome.
Today is pretty much the last day of filming and we needed a guy to play the grownup version of our Actor. While shopping last night Wayne and I found him. He had been living in Melbourne but is back in Lospalos with a thriving little business. He had also acted in Balibo. He also was sensational.
The stand out star was the crocodile that our Director, Charles, managed to conjure up by dangling a puppy over the river. The crocodile behaved perfectly and silently sunk down into the depths of the river right on cue.
While all the filming has been going on I have managed to negotiate a good outcome for the young people and the women regarding the building of a Centre. There will now be two centres, one for each group.
Building finally commenced yesterday. We have a great Indigenous carpenter working with us called Dale. He nearly had a heart attack watching the guys barefoot on the roof ripping off the old iron. He has been training them in the use of power tools. Quite challenging I can tell you.
I was able to buy tools nice and cheaply thanks to a crazy guy called Rocket I had met in the Hotel Esplanada. He is a carpenter and has lived here for 10 years. Quite a character I can tell you. If it were not for him I would still be in the various shops trying to explain what I needed.
Today is a big Fretilin Rally and Maleve and Elsa are speaking at it. They are both so charismatic and inspiring.
This blog would not be complete without mentioning Deb Salvagno. She has been here in Lospalos for 2 years and has achieved so much with the women weavers. I admire her stamina as conditions are quite difficult and relationships are highly complex. I actually don’t know how she has done it.
We will be posting the short film on our website so look out for it over the next couple of weeks.
I hear the weather is terrible in Melbourne. Every day here is perfection but I do miss our little farm and our beautiful dog not to mention my sons Jay and Sam and all my friends.
See you soon.
Anne's-Thoughts

ABC pitch

We have cut a Pitch, of our women’s motorcycle and 4WD tour of Timor we did last year, for the ABC. Am hoping it is a good fit for Compass which is now on at 6:30pm on a Sunday night. Great slot! Not long till we head off to Timor again. There’s still so much to do. We still need camera and audio gear to leave behind for the guys in the village to cut their own films. Wayne is going to train them in all things multimedia. Very exciting! It looks as though we are getting the computers donated. Thanks to Sam and Matt. We have a great young filmmaker coming with us. Welcome aboard Sarah Hughes! Sarah recently graduated from RMIT and all the skills she gained will be made good use of in Lospalos. Maleve is flat out getting everything ready for the building of the sustainability centre. A huge task.

Anne's-Thoughts

The time has come

What a wonderful thing it is when something or someone’s time has come.

I have been pondering time and have decided I cannot think of it in a linear way.

I have been married to Wayne for almost 40 years and it feels simultaneously like 5 mins and before time began.

We started a documentary with Brigitte Muir back in 1987 and it finally went to air on SBS in 2005. It took her a very long time to achieve her dream of climbing the highest peak on each continent and even longer for us to complete the film.

                                  Full documentary  ”The Eighth Summit”  -  Producer: Anne Tindall

 

There are more important things than ambition and self interest. There is a wonderful alchemy between breaking through and a thing just simply flowing because the time is right.

I am so grateful for all the people who have contributed along the way to make Change the World a success thus far.

It is so important to give from a place of abundance and not from a place of striving and exhaustion.

I had to get my own life in order and find peace but also continue to break through with Change the World. In a word ALCHEMY!

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Vox Pops

Hugh Jackman supported Change the World in our early development phase offering us great encouragement.

The early stages of our journey saw us in negotiations with Channel 9 Australia for a large commercial series, designed to follow the stories of ‘World Changers’ as they struggled to make a difference in the world.
Hugh even sat with us in the Channel 9 boardroom as we negotiated our deal.

The contracts later fell apart as the channel struggled financially, something we are now grateful for.
We have now come to realise that in the words of Mahatma Ghandi, “we must first be the change we wish to see in the world”.

There’s no doubt this journey has changed us. We are now doing what we do best. Assisting communities at a grassroots level and making great films about these ordinary people doing extraordinary things as they emerge from the poverty cycle to live sustainable and fulfilling lives.

Hugh Jackman made this clip for us to assist with our journey. Thank you Hugh!

Anne Tindall – Founder Change the World
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Thoughts on Los Palos

I am sitting at home on the farm, contemplating our next trip to Timor Leste. We still need to raise the money to even get there but I know in my bones we are going.

I love it that the building of the Women’s and Youth Centre we raised over $20,000 for, is all set to commence in April. How wonderful to be there for the 8 weeks of construction to capture on film this huge achievement.

I have been hearing so much lately about all sorts of people doing incredible projects all over the globe.

I think what Change the World can really offer is the opportunity to show these giant leaps forward to an enormous audience through the power of film, be it on television, in cinemas, through travelling roadshows and online through our website and other channels.

We will really dig in and get the history of the places we go to, get to know the locals we are working alongside and hear their point of view about how they see the world.

We’ll explore their country from top to bottom and in the case of Timor Leste that has already been a truly amazing privilege.

In July last year I joined a women’s motorcycle and 4WD tour. I saw the countryside first hand. Both the beauty and the devastation. That is what motivated me to have the fundraiser once we got back to Melbourne.

It was not all beer and skittles, as they say. First I fell off my motorbike and hurt myself, ouch! Then I found I was retaining so much fluid I had basically doubled in size, not pretty! Then to add insult to injury my bed exploded one night during an ill conceived cuddling session with the hubby, again not pretty and ouch!

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Bye for now.

Anne x


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The DSLR revolution

I’ve been on this planet long enough to see some pretty cool technology changes, but none so cool as the current DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera line up. On my last two trips to Timor I took my new and already ‘trusty’ Canon 5D Mark 11 camera with all the trappings. It’s true to say that housed in my Red Rock Rig it looks like it’s on steroids.

Here’s my take on the camera and it’s operation in a pretty wild environment like Timor Leste.

PROS

Depth of field! You have got to love this camera with it’s full size sensor delivering stunning video that looks like it was shot on an HD camera in the $200,000 league!

Colour! The richness of the colours makes everything ‘sing’. Even with the ISO up to 1000 the camera delivers sharp, rich, simply beautiful pictures.

Versatility! There seems to be a ‘workaround’ for everything this camera may lack in the video department. Okay, the audio sucks with the ‘piss ant’ mini phono input, however with a little bit of a fiddle with my H4N Zoom digital audio recorder that takes XLR inputs, I seem to be able to get more than acceptable results from any shotgun and or lapel mics.

1080p Video! Yep, this is where the little camera shines. The quality that comes out the back end is sensational to say the least. I have never has any issues importing into FCP, merging the files with other video or losing files. Like any digital acquisition one has to be anal about ‘data wrangling’. During the last shoot in Timor, I managed to transfer all files on the run onto small portable 1 Terrabyte drives attached to my Macbook Pro (using a small cigarette plug power inverter to change the Macbook on the go). As soon as I reached a homestay (with power) I made a backup copy of everything onto another HERO drive. Over a 3 week period encountering unbelievable travel and weather conditions I managed not to lose a single file.

CONS

This is definitely not a ‘run’n gun’ camera. In Timor the humidity, the stark light, the humidity and the harsh shadows can do your head in with this camera. You simply need a little more time to get the right shot. The big issue I have had is the controlling iris as the sun comes in and out behind clouds. The camera has an iris control that ‘clicks’ or ‘steps’ up and down the f stops. No good for fine video recording! I have managed a workaround for this as well with a smooth variable neutral density filter in front of the lens. I simply use this to fine tune lighting fluctuations during an outside interview etc.

Having said all of this, next trip I plan to take something like the new Sony NEX-FS100U with the Super 35mm Sensor. This will get me out of some tight jams when I need to run and gun and monitor audio with the hassle of attached digital audio recorders etc. Once again it’s got few annoying feature however I reckon the two cameras will serve me well.

STILLS

Having spent a good deal of my life with large format Bronica, it took a little while to convince me that stills from a DSLR could compete. Of course these stills are comparable to 35mm film not the Bronica 6X4, however the results are startling and I’m still getting used to the speed that these canon lenses can ‘lock’ into auto focus! Here’s a couple of portraits taken in the highlands of Timor in the stinking heat at a moments notice.

 

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Fund Raising

Like so many others that have been on the journey that is “Change The World”, I can bear witness of how inspiring it is being amongst a community who can celebrate life despite their hardship. The resourcefulness, simplicity and generosity of some of these people makes you wonder “just how much do I really need to be happy”?

 Ironically our “developed” country has an ever growing fixation on excess – even to the point where obesity and family dysfunction have become the stuff of prime time televison!

 Thankfully, Change The World provides a landscape where both sides of the camera find gold. (Almost) everyone I do a presention to is moved by the stories that come out of the communities we work with. These stories provide a rich insight into the qualities of the human condition – how hardship moulds compassion, deprivation leads to sharing, and suffering becomes the fuel that drives a determination to build something better.

 We can all celebrate the triumphs of these stories – they are real, often deeply moving and for many – life changing. Our encouragement is for others to get on board and enjoy a front row seat on an amazing adventure. Consider this your invitation to get involved and celebrate – village by village, one country at a time.

 The value-add that we give to these communities far outweighs the cash contribution (and what’s more, every amount is fully tax deductable) – and produces some awesome viewing!

 I’ll be updating this blog periodically with details on how to be involved and (where appropriate) give some insights into some of our supporters and their own reasons for giving. For now, get in touch via the Contacts page and we will follow you up.

 I look forward to discussing with you how to contribute.

 Regards David.